London, England
Translator - Sang Kil Han
We have learned that due to the fall God has needed to recreate His original world, and also that it takes time for man to be restored to his original position. Recreation requires the history of mankind to be indemnified and restored, and for this thousands of years of human history need to be denied or overcome and restored to the side of God. Human history involves the family level, national level and worldwide level of significance. Individually, all of us need to retrace everything, going over a certain course in order to stand on the restored side.
Originally all of creation belonged to God, but due to the fall it came into Satan's possession. When creation came under Satan, human history came under him as well. Every person must clearly understand that we are living under satanic influence in the realm of the fall and that we need to lead a religious life. A very simply analogy would be that of a British soldier going to fight in World War II and being captured by the German army. In the same way, mankind is now living in Satan's prison camp.
A camp for prisoners is in a hostile land where the lifestyle and history are all different from what the prisoners are used to, but the big difference is that a prisoner of war always remembers life in his native land. He will fight to escape from the camp and regain his freedom. If you were born in the prison camp, however, not knowing what kind of life you could have in Britain, you would have no inclination to leave the prison. If your ancestors for several generations also lived there you wouldn't even know to want to escape to freedom because you wouldn't know that there was any other way of life.
Because the first ancestors of mankind fell, no man has ever led a free life. You can't even look outside the prison camp and see German guards walking around like the prisoner can because in this case no one lives outside the prison. There is no other life to compare it with and so everyone thinks this world is the norm. This is the present situation facing all mankind.
You hold the sensational view that Satan is trying to make mankind suffer and you must fight against him, but there is no indication of this which we can see with our eyes. As a result, all mankind has lived in one huge prison knowing nothing else and absolutely unaware that there is any other freer life to pursue. Mankind thinks this is all there is to living.
How could we be alerted to the fact that we are in prison? The only way is through an experience of spirit world. By seeing into spirit world and comparing it with our earthly situation we can know that Satan exists and that our originally intended way of life has to be restored. Then we can know how we were supposed to live. We can gain a distinct idea of what heaven and hell are, and realize that our responsibility is to make this earthly hell into heaven. This is only perceivable through an experience of spirit world. In knowing where we are now and where we are supposed to go, we are trying to escape from the prison to the free world.
Barbed wire surrounds every prison camp. In the fallen world every individual is surrounded by barbed wire, as well as every family; encircling the nation is a huge barbed wire fence which is stronger than the others. Perhaps England can maneuver somewhat within this confine, but surrounding the world is another fence which England cannot escape. Beyond that there is a barbed wire fence that encircles the spirit world as well as the physical world. Only after breaching that last fence can we reach the original land, the original ideal for mankind.
Do you feel how realistic those fences are? Maybe they are nothing more vivid than concepts in your mind. Actually, it is necessary to be put in a real life situation of imprisonment before you can realistically know that this is the way mankind is trapped. Only then will you feel truly desperate to be liberated. The minute you try to get outside the fence that surrounds your family or clan, Satan will come and kick you back inside and yell, "Where do you think you are going? You must stay in."
Even if God were to come one day and take the fence away, people wouldn't notice any difference because they didn't know it was there to begin with. No one would even want to go out because they wouldn't know where to go. Even if God could obliterate the national and worldwide fences, until each person cuts away the fence around himself he cannot go anywhere. He must cut his own fence by himself. God has been working vertically throughout restoration. He doesn't expect man to cut down his own fence so He drops a line from up above. God moves in such a way that man starts looking for a hold above himself. Then when God drops the line man will be sure to grab it, and once he does he will never let go. Then God can lift him out.
That is only half of the story. Once man finally finds this opening and this rope, thinking that it is his life and he should never let go of it, he is still not free because he is attached to his family and things. While God is trying to pull him out, other people will try to pull him back. What each person has to do is learn to cut off all the ties around him to the point where he feels he has nothing to do with his family. In the beginning of restoration each individual must run for his life individually, not collectively. Strictly speaking, there aren't even any nations to belong to because there is no nation for the original ideal. In his mind the individual has to deny everything.
Religion teaches us that
we are born heavenly citizens
Mr. Orme was born in Britain and is now living in Britain, and is reasonably sure that he will die British. When he lands in spirit world, however, will he find England there? Your imagination is just as good as anyone else's. Do you think Queen Elizabeth will be reigning over you there like she is here on earth? When Dennis Orme goes to spirit world will he go as a British subject? If he does, he will find himself a foreigner. When a person goes to spirit world like that he finds himself in a corner, off to one side, and that's where he remains.
Then what is religion? Religion teaches you to feel that you were born as a member of the heavenly country. Once you know where you were born, you know where you should return; religion broadens you in that way. You know you belong to heaven but because of the fall you are now living in the satanic world, and wherever you go Satan kicks you around because you are a foreigner. People mistreat you and call you a Moonie.
If a missionary from England goes to Africa and is killed by the Africans, the British will publicize it and protest. We know we belong to God but the people mistreat us. Then just like the British would protest the Africans' mistreatment of the missionary, here on the heavenly side we protest through legal channels. All of these confrontations involve the spirit world and through the law spirit world will fight for us. Then no matter how great Satan's forces are, if they are against the Principle and heavenly law they will not be able to do anything. Spirit world is mobilized when Moonies are mistreated.
What is religion? Religion teaches you the fact that we were born as members of the heavenly world but now reside in hell because of the fall of our ancestors. We need to be revived and born again. A long time ago Nicodemus came to Jesus and asked how to go to heaven. Jesus replied that unless a person is born again he can never go to heaven. Then Nicodemus asked how a grown man like himself could go back to his mother's womb and be born again. Jesus replied, "Are you a leader of the Jews and yet you don't understand this?"
Why are we supposed to be born again? What do you do by being born again? Even though the barbed wire fence is all around us and we cannot break it ourselves, when we are born again we change our citizenship and belong to heaven. Then when Satan imprisons the heavenly citizen within the barbed wire fence it is God's responsibility; it is not your responsibility any more. That means that when the proper time comes, heaven can destroy all of the barbed wire fence around you and reclaim you as its member. When heaven liberates you from the prison Satan cannot say anything.
Even under the worst circumstances, if you know for sure where you belong and are sure that you are born again as a heavenly citizen, when you go to spirit world you will go directly to where you belong. You are a citizen of heaven and in the spirit world nothing will bind you. All the heavenly spirit men will welcome you with cheering because you fought well and chose to remain a heavenly citizen rather than compromise your heavenly life.
There are many different ways of believing in religion. All religious people are not the same. Some of them are very interested in liberating themselves from their personal fence and try to do that. Some think on the family level and try to escape the family barbed wire fence. Some people are conscious of the national barbed wire fences and try to get out of that, while others are trying to do away with the world fence.
There must be a religion concerned with freeing everyone from the individual, family, clan, national and worldwide bondage and going directly to the original ideal world. Instead there are many kinds of religions with their ways of life, as well as individuals who pursue their objectives in ways other than religion. Is the Unification Church a religion or a political organization? Is it the kind of religion that is supposed to go through every level? It would be very nice if we could accomplish that, but are we really prepared to do that?
Which country do you belong to? Actually you don't know what heaven or hell is; it's too complicated for you to understand. One thing of which you are sure though is that everything in the world today if faulty and fake and you want to belong to the true country. When you know that then you are all right. Because we have this point of view we talk about the true man, true parents, true nation, true everything. We say this with the hope of belonging to that true country and becoming the true people. When people on earth start going in that direction, if Satan hates anyone it will be those people. Is "Moonie" a great name or a bad name? It's great because it has everything to do with being true.
Civilizations cross both peaks and valleys
Do you find that the things the world does and the Unification Church does are the same? Should they be a little different or 100% different? We must eat and sleep like average people do so what difference is there? I like to eat rice and hot kimchi and ko chi chang while some people like to eat bread. Dennis will say, "Father, that's too hot for me. It burns my stomach and I can't eat it." Is that where the difference lies?
I belong to the yellow race and Dennis belongs to the white race. How are we the same? Our origin is the same and our destination is the same. No matter where a person came from, he has the same origin and destination as everyone else. That similarity is like the axis around which a ball spins. Utilizing that axis, God will keep it turning and turning and turning.
The yellow race lives where there has been some sunshine and some darkness, while black people lived on the dark side where the sun has not actually shone yet. Nevertheless, they are all human beings, and the development of human civilization follows a certain pattern. Western civilization has reached its peak and once there it has to decline while the next civilization moves in. The Oriental civilization will be the next to move up.
The historical climate and time in which I become famous and take the leading role will start the period when Korea and Japan and everything that is Oriental in nature will start to ascend. That's why Westerners have become very conscious of yellow power and are watching closely to see what will come of it. After this, the black civilization will flourish. How can it be that without any exception white people enjoy great privilege? It would not be right for England to be the top country all throughout history. Is England prospering or on the decline? Even if you question Queen Elizabeth, she will admit that this nation is not ascending.
England may want the sun to shine all the time but as the axis turns she will experience night. What are the British going to do about it? They have to hook up an electrical line between England and Reverend Moon which can supply the necessary power and light. Otherwise, the nation will live in darkness. What we are doing in every part of the world is installing electrical wiring to a power supply. Deep inside, the English really wish that I were white, but since this is impossible they think they can deny that they need us.
At the economic summit meeting taking place now in Bonn, President Carter said that America doesn't want as many Japanese goods. Prime Minister Callaghan said that Britain doesn't want Japanese goods either. The Japanese Prime Minister is on the spot there, and he can only answer by saying, "What can I do? All of your people like Japanese products because they are cheaper and last longer." In much the same way the British and American governments say, "Reverend Moon, we don't welcome you." But the people in England and America will say, "We can't live without you. We want to see you." What can the government do? That's the situation now.
Even with the greatest military power can you make the earth stand still or keep the sun from rising? If you pray very hard and do everything in your power to prevent the sun from rising can you do it? It has nothing to do with prayer or with military power. When the sun rises, it rises. God is the sun of the universe and as long as we follow God there will always be light. No one likes to admit it but everyone is perishing. If they don't want to perish, they must get into the sunshine.
Have you installed electrical wiring from me to you? You want to be absolutely sure that it is properly connected because if I go away the distance between us will become greater. You will have to run fast to lengthen the wiring. You can make it so strong that any power trying to sever it will be thwarted. If I say to our members in Japan and America, "Let's go to England," they will all come. The tie between us is that strong.
Ever since the fall God has been working
to make one perfect man
I am only an individual like yourself, but if I come to London will the heavenly people of the world turn towards London or away? The Unification Church will come towards London, even those who don't like England. If the government is thinking logically, it will see that this phenomenon is here to stay and instead of trying to circumvent such human power it will say, "We will make it work for us rather than against us."
Among world religions, is the Unification Church good or bad? It is good because once we finish our job everything is done. We won't have to come back to make it good. Other religions have to bore tunnels in all different ways because once they reach one goal they have to turn around to dig another tunnel. In the Unification Church when you bore the tunnel it extends along one line from level to level, and leads to the ultimate goal. That's why the Unification Church is good.
In the Unification Church we teach people to work for the sake of the world. No matter what country you belong to temporarily, the work you do is for the world. No matter who you are, you don't have permanent ties with your family or nation. The only thing in your mind is to do the will of God. That's everything you are always working toward. If God drops a line from a helicopter and a Unification Church member picks it up, all God has to do is lift up because nothing is holding that person back. All you have to do is hang on for a few minutes and you will be in the same zone; but if you try to look down, it will make you dizzy and you will drop down.
You must realize one important thing: everything God has been doing for these many centuries and through many religions is to make one perfect man. That is exactly what God has been doing from the fall of mankind until this moment. This is a recreation process and it must follow the rules and laws of the original creation. How do we know whether we are being recreated? We only know through the spirit world. Did Adam and Eve know that God existed? Do you know God exists now? Do you know God is now saying the same thing to you as He did to Adam and Eve when He gave the commandment, "Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"?
In the Unification Church do you live your life as you will or according to someone else's wish? Are you sure you haven't already thought about the special brother or sister that you want to be blessed with? You must be very candid and admit if you have or not. It's difficult to resist thinking like that all the time. Even now some people feel attracted to others. Many times you just follow someone that you're attracted to. What do you do if you feel attracted to some man or some woman? Do you keep on following and say, "Oh, I shouldn't be doing this"? If you cut these feelings, do you feel miserable or do you feel clear like the blue sky?
When God commands you not to indulge in love, you should obey the commandment just as in Adam's time. When God commands you not to go into a dangerous situation, that's what you must do. You may want to go a certain way, but if God says not to go, you must completely give it up and turn around and go as God wants you to go.
What would happen if God told you to do as you like? Wouldn't everyone want to go in the wrong way? As a result of the fall, everything that people want to do is contrary to God's way. No one wants to deny himself anything. You got up at 4:30 a.m. today but you don't like that, do you? Is there anyone who enjoys getting up at 4:30 in the morning?
Then when you wake up do you complain or do you happily wake up and say, "This is the morning we meet God. We are so privileged." Do you feel that or do you complain? You have some happy feeling together with some unhappy feeling but which is greater? Are you glad you got up because you heard such an interesting talk this morning? What if I only scolded you at 4:30 in the morning; then how would you feel next week? If you sincerely keep the right attitude in spite of what happens this world will become heaven.
In all honesty I don't like fund raising, but we do it nevertheless because it is so meaningful. As far as we can see it is the best thing to do, although we don't necessarily enjoy it. Is there anyone who really loves school more than play and can't wait until the sun comes up so he can go to class and study hard? No one likes to study but you do it because you know that you will be better off in the future.
There is nothing ideal about our lives now but for the future this is the best possible way. For that reason we really don't mind and we push ourselves day after day. I have been living my life this way and on top of this have been accused and persecuted. What's so good about it? I could stay rather comfortably in Korea, so why did I come to England?
If I thought of myself as a Korean like many British think they are British then I would have nothing to do with England. But if the whole purpose of my life is to unite the world and this is the best country for that purpose then I don't mind being in England and working here. If we have no future to think about then our life today is not worthwhile. If there is no future to think about, why should we go through a rather difficult life?
All children have to do is follow their parents
My topic this morning is History and Our Responsibility. What is your responsibility? Actually it is rather simple. In preparation for such time as God drops you a line, you have to free yourself from all the old connections. Are you confident that you can cut off all the ties around you so that you can be lifted up? Do you feel that you are restored by paying individual indemnity? If you have restored yourself and God is near you, you just cut off all the old attachments like a crazy person and jump at God and hold onto Him and never let go again.
You have to cut the barbed wire fencing surrounding the individual, the family, the clan and the nation, freeing yourself from it on all levels. You wish very much that God would do that for you but He cannot. It is man's responsibility. Who built these fences? Satan and the fallen human parents built them together. In restoration God and then the True Parents must tear them down. The first ancestors fell from God with evil, but the ancestors of goodness will have to restore that, making a tie with God and lifting the people up to restore them. The children to those True Parents will follow them and never let go.
All the children have to do is follow. When the parents go through a path of thorns the children can't say, "Father, I don't want to go because it's too painful." Then the parents will scold them, "Don't come with me then. You are nuisances." The children will cry but still they will follow. Then even though the parents keep scolding, some time they will say, "Come sit beside us." You might think that is a contradiction, but it is only the normal relationship of the parents and children. Parents seem to always be scolding but their heart and love are so strong that when they embrace their children there is no trace of resentment.
What about the Western pattern of relationship between husband and wife? In the public way we always have to follow, but whenever the Western man says something in public, his wife always replies, "What about me? What do you want me to do by myself?" Throughout history they have always been thinking about themselves. No chaste woman ever sent her husband out, saying, "You are going to work for the public so don't worry about me. Go and do well for both of us." How about you future wives in the Unification Church? When you get blessed will you hold your husbands to yourselves or would you say, "Forget about me and go do your work. Go and fight for me also." Are you that good?
Before I came to England I looked at the situation in America and decided that the IW system was not adequate. I called the blessed wives who were taking care of their children, even several who had a nursing baby and one with a boy in grammar school as well. I gave them 12 hours notice to assemble. They all came and then went out to other places to work, forgetting about their husbands and babies. They hardly had any time to pack up but without exception they came to New York at the stated time. There was only enough time for the husband to buy the airline ticket and the wife barely had enough time to pack, do the unfinished work in the household and give instructions about the care of the children. They didn't even kiss each other good-bye. They just came to New York.
Do you think the husband complained, "What kind of wife is she?" Or did he bid her farewell and say a prayer afterwards for her sake? The children didn't cling to their mother, saying, "Stay with me." Even the children say, "Father told me mother has to go.''
Is it wrong to be separated? There is no question that it is better to live together, but for the public cause it is better to be separated. By being separate your future is much better than if you always live together; it will bring more result. If the parents live that way then their children will be respected and treated better by all people than if the parents had lived together. It is better to follow that way because it is the true way.
When you get blessed in the future, would you send your husband to the national IOWA or the international IOWA? You would prefer the national IOWA so that you could see him once in a while, but we all know that the bigger the cause the better. At least that's the way God sees it, and that's the way we should see it too.
As children, who must you follow? If the parents are striving to go to the top of the mountain and it's a very difficult hike, would true children all say, "Father, that's too difficult for me. I want to stay down below" ? Or would they follow him even if they cried with tiredness? What if I suddenly said we must now cross the ocean? Would the children say, "No, we'd better stay here"? What if you lost your life crossing the ocean? If someone had to die first should it be the parents or the children? Should the parents work harder, or the children? Are you sincere when you say the children should work harder? That's the way it should be. The parents would always be concerned about the future of their children and their descendants. They would never have a comfortable night's sleep as long as their children were working hard. True parents will think about the future of their hard-working children, even throughout the night.
Your objective in following me as children is to terminate this miserable history and turn the tide to the beginning of the new history. The first thing we must do is take the strongest grip on God and never let go. Once that is established, we should get busy loosening the attachments of all the individual, family, national and worldly ties. Each person must do his very best to terminate his relations with the satanic side, but once you disconnect yourself from all that you can go back to the world and recover your future husband or wife. From the satanic world you have to restore the one who will later be your spouse. That's the same thing that I did in the early days of our Church.
Why did I form the Unification Church? At this point the Unification Church is in its second generation. Our members are young people, not people my age; they are the second generation to my generation. In order for me to free myself individually I must have the outer foundation of a family as protection. Why? In order for me to be restored individually and advance the dispensation, I must have a family as an object.
Likewise, when I am ready to form a family I have to have the protective environment of the clan. Once I form a family, the clan foundation will become the hedge to defend us from the satanic world. When I am about to establish the clan, I should have a national foundation to protect it. Then my activity will be on the national scale and naturally opposition will come on the same level. Once that is done, I will advance to the world scale. That's how the dispensation progresses.
All of this was a function of the Unification Church and historically it has already done all of this. You must realize that when an individual forms a family, many families must unite and thus form a clan. When the clan has enough members, it automatically forms a nation. When nations exist in different places and get together, a world is formed.
Which level of mission is the Unification Church doing now? The family level was accomplished a long time ago and today we are on the world level.
In order for that work to go smoothly, the spirit world must surround us as a protective hedge against the satanic world. The Unification Church is now acting in the capacity of a world hedge. In order for us to be able to do that, we must cut off all the barriers as individuals, a family, clan, nation and world and then the spirit world can help the Unification Church in the dispensation. Unless we do that, the spiritual world cannot surround and protect us against the evil power. How will we do that? What specific indemnity is necessary? International marriage is the key.
International marriage
Why did all the fences come into being to begin with? The reason is that Adam and Eve got married centering around Satan. All of these barbed wire fences came into existence because of marriage outside God's dispensation. In order to take them away we must go through the same process but in reverse. Therefore, this time we get married centering around God, and by making these marriages successful we can cut down the fences. In today's world people marry any way they want to, having nothing to do with God. We know that proper marriage, in the past and in the future, must be approved by the parents and God. This is why every Unification Church member, young and old, is waiting to be blessed by True Parents and God. This is the dispensational meaning of the blessing.
Every individual has his preferences. If you are British you probably want someone who likes the same food and speaks the same language. If I match you to a German then you might say, "Well, at least the Germans are European. That's better than marrying someone whose customs are far different, like an African." Can you white members insist on marrying a white? If you are married to someone from another race, will you have regrets? This may not make you happy at the moment but you can accept it so that you become the ancestor of both the black and the white people. That is why you are marrying and why you say yes right away with no regrets.
Such a marriage is better than a Briton marrying another Briton. In restoration history this person is grafting himself to another race and when he goes to spirit world he will find himself on the ancestral level of both white and black, literally a king of both races. If you really feel that and can restore yourself sufficiently, you will command a bigger nation.
How do we achieve unity? Uniting means doing away with all the fences. Two nations can get together militarily but they can never truly unite that way. By marriage, however, the blood lineages will flow together. God's nature and property are given equally, regardless of whether a person is Oriental or black or white. They are but different branches of the same tree. Can you say that the blood in your finger should not go to your legs? Because your feet smell can your brain tell the blood there to stay away from your head?
What benefit or pleasure do I get in inter-marrying all five races and having them undergo all sorts of difficulties and adjustments? I have to invest much prayer into matching them and speak very much to educate them. Do you think it is easy? What pleasure is there in it for me? Their parents complain and say things like, "Why does my French daughter marry a German? Even if he spoke French it wouldn't be so bad, but he only speaks German. Of all the people in the world, why him?" If the two of them had met somewhere and liked each other so much that they wanted to get married then maybe their parents would understand. But they got married the first time they met. With all the other possibilities for marriage, why would a French woman marry a German? After they are married they can't even say the simplest thing to each other without going to look for an interpreter!
In the common sense view, this is an impossibly inconvenient thing. "Why should they have to do that?" the parents argue. "Maybe it's because Reverend Moon is too dumb to think about these things." The children know that's not the problem; after listening to me they think I'm the smartest man they ever heard speak.
Through marriage you will break down walls, but the blood-tie will never break. The success of these marriages is the strongest possible organization of power there is. This is the one thing that even the communist countries are afraid of. We can do this any time we want to, in any number we want and as often as we want. Do you think now the world will come into unity? As the number of blessed couples increases then people of each nationality will also want to marry internationally. They will say that is the very spirit of the Unification Church, and the reality of this spirit will make the unity of nations possible for the first time in history.
Good international marriages are the best way to do away with all the barriers and ties we so often talk about. We are employing the best way to bring all the world into unity. Even if someone were to tie you and your spouse back-to-back with a rope you would still be able to love each other the rest of your lives. If you have such a strong, positive marriage then the world will come into unity.
The 118 couples were mostly international matches but that wasn't because it's hard for me to tell French from German or Austrian. Actually, I didn't think about nationality but only did the best matching and later found that the couples were 97% international. Even I was surprised.
Did the international couples think, "Oh now I'm in trouble. How am I going to make this work? I don't know my husband's language or customs." Did you couples think you were in much difficulty or were you happy and accepting? Externally you might look crazy to accept such a situation, but internally you are really very wise.
My main topic concerns our responsibility. It is to do away with all the fences and bring unity. Our purpose and God's purpose is to do away with all the interference and bring everything into unity. Every part of the earth is our land and we have only one country-the heavenly country. That country is bound by the love of God and love of marriage. Marriage under God's love is our country.
This is no one's invention. In the very beginning life was planned to center around Him, forming marriages under Him and with Him. We are just returning to this original way, rediscovering this original country. God's thought forms the basis for all of man's intelligence, and through the love of God that comes through parents everyone is to be connected, as one, one in origin.
Among us blood is connected and life is connected and love is connected. We must be proud of the fact that we are now born again in the blood lineage and love that ties us to heaven. As long as we live we can never let go of this. As long as I have life I cannot drain my blood or my love out of myself.
As long as I have that blood flowing in myself, I cannot give up my life or give up my love. This is the depth of our connection; we must always be strongly aware that we are the newborn children of God.
The responsibility of the Unification Church is to spread the life and love of God throughout the world by establishing this blood-tie with heaven and perpetuating it. Accordingly we are giving this light and love to the world. It is our responsibility.
The people who can restore love and life
will restore all mankind
People might like America or England, which is fine, but when I go to Africa they will all follow me. They think that as long as they are with me it doesn't matter what country they are in. Are you ready to give up even such a paradise as England for that? In Africa you will have to walk around without shoes. You may eat only one meal a day in the scorching hot sun. Would you prefer that to living in comfortable England? Are you willing to go so far as to become naked if everyone lives like that in Africa? Those who are determined to live there as long as I do, raise your hands please. I have to research to see if what you say is true. If you are genuinely determined to do that then the evil world is in trouble and on the verge of collapse. Is God beaming from ear to ear? God will say, "My time is coming!"
It makes no difference what worldly people think about you or about themselves; as long as you sit with me this way we are really the happiest bunch in the world, aren't we? Even though we look like almost nothing, we are the people full of dreams and full of hope. We go out and fund raise with peanuts and chocolate but in the future the whole world will depend on us, and if we don't do anything then the world has absolutely no chance to survive. After realizing that, you can have the real feeling that each box of candy or bag of peanuts is stronger than an atomic bomb because it will make a dead man live once more. No matter how many atomic bombs the world may explode, nothing really changes because they have nothing to do with life, whereas the bag of peanuts you are selling is bringing each person one step closer to heaven.
What does God recreate first in restoration?
When God's life, love and blood lineage are established, what would God do? He has to recover what Adam lost. As the result of his fall Adam lost God's country; he lost all things. God recovers what Adam lost by recreating it. Restoration is recreation and since Adam and Eve lost all things, man must restore them. When God can finally find people through whom He can restore love, life and the true blood ties, those people are in God's position and on behalf of God they must recreate all things and recover all lost men.
God first created all things and then created man. After that He was to establish love with true man. The Old Testament era was represented by all things and the sacrifices made then were for the sake of all things. The creation came first so man must sacrifice for all things to be restored. In the New Testament age man sacrificed to recover the lost people. Christianity spread around the world. Jesus and many later followers died, sacrificing themselves to restore all people.
In the age of the Completed Testament, however, we have to plant love in the hearts of all restored people. This is why we are bearing the cross of love, which is the heaviest of all crosses. This is why marriage means bearing the cross itself. Unification Church marriage is not happy in the usual sense. The cross of love is more painful than the cross of the body, and once we marry, we find that marriage becomes one of our major works. This is the way marriage is supposed to be.
Is an international marriage very comfortable and easy, or is it meaningful but difficult to work through? This is the cross of love, the cross of heart. No one experiences this more keenly than I do. I have to love white people all the time and because of what they are it is not easy. I feel much sympathy for black people and I cannot help but shed tears for them. I feel that they are my own children and I have been bearing the cross of love all along.
What kind of cross are we bearing now in the Unification Church? The cross of love. We tread this way with gratitude toward God. God can do miracles in every moment if we successfully bear this cross, and after three generations everything will work itself out and then the world will be peaceful. If we know the impact and meaning of this, when we get to spirit world we will go to the highest level and everyone will look up to us and love us.
Unification marriage is not just ordinary marriage. It represents indemnity of all extremes in worldly marriages. Not everyone married in the Unification Church is great; in fact, they are not any better than any others in the world. But in one thing they excel over all worldly married people, and that is that they hold onto the will of God and have determined that alive or dead they will go this way throughout their lives. Nothing else is different.
Some members exclaim over a blessed child or a blessed couple but actually that has no meaning. It's better to exclaim over his or her willingness to do the will of God. As long as there is that devotion we must respect that marriage and the children coming out of it. Don't think we are different simply because we are married or because our children are blessed children. I wish that I could allow you to believe in such a way, but you must understand this.
If you deny yourself and go a way that is counter toe your desires it is good for you. Wait and see whether or not you have good children. The Little Angels School in Korea started out as an art school with mostly children from outside our Church attending. Now that our blessed couples' children are old enough to go to school they make up 10 % of the student body. When examinations are given the top ten percent are always blessed children. That kind of child is the usual result of the blessing.
We have been meeting in a more or less horizontal way but once this relationship develops generation after generation, all dimensions will be added and developed vertically, including the spirit world. Our purpose in life is to live like this, to live as good ancestors. Because of the fall, parents have always died as bad ancestors. We are different only if we can become good ancestors instead.
We must realize that the responsibility of the Unification Church is to live and die as good ancestors and bear this cross of love. We are the forerunners and flag bearers, going ahead of everyone in carrying the cross of love. We are going to pass this love along to everyone. You leaders must take responsibility to raise funds and witness and bring the lost people back, planting love in them.
We are indemnifying and clearing away all the complications of the Old Testament, New Testament and Completed Testament ages. The leader bears a heavier cross of love than the ordinary members. As long as you faithfully carry the cross of love on your shoulders, your future and your work will develop faster and faster. Since the center leader is doing that in the position of parent, other members must do the
same thing and faithfully carry their own portions of love, supporting the leader to make him perfect.
We will try our very best to fulfill our responsibility as Unification Church members. Those who are determined to do that, raise your hands please.
Let us pray.
